U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0201449 A1 to DiDonato discloses a no-tangle two dog retractable leash with flashlight. The device includes a housing containing a pair of spools, each having a leash secured thereto. The spools rotate about an axle to allow each leash to unwind from, or rewind onto, its respective spool. Both ends of the axle are attached to the housing, thereby fixing the axle in place inside the housing. A handle is attached to the housing by a shaft that allows the handle to pivot with respect to the housing about an axis extending transversely to the axle. Since the axle is fixed in place inside the housing, when one leash crosses over the other leash, the housing rotates with respect to the handle (held stationary in a user's hand) in order to uncross the leashes from one another. The rotation of the housing with respect to the handle in order to uncross the leashes detracts from the operation of the device.
The device disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0201449 also includes a brake pad that can be operated by a user by pressing a push pad. The brake pad is arranged to simultaneously engage both spools when the user presses the push pad, thereby stopping both spools simultaneously. This arrangement prevents the user from stopping one spool independently from the other, for example, when an animal attached to one leash needs to be stopped, but the animal attached to the other leash does not.